What is Happening in America? Part 3 - Race, Riots and Social Justice

Now, like I said earlier, I would like you to turn to Genesis chapter 1. Now I didn't want to scare you earlier when I said we'll go from chapter 1 to chapter 6 to chapter 9 to chapter 11. There are quite a few verses I want us to read together. That will slow us down a little, but these are foundational verses. This is foundational teaching. It's all right there together. You can follow me rather easily. And this will really kind of have a second part of the message, and I will give you those verses, but you jot those down and go back and read them on your own.

At times I do want us to go from verse to verse together, and then there are times I want you to just follow me, because I want us to be able to get everything the Lord wants to give us here this morning. Now I think most of you know that for the past two weeks we have been answering a question that has been on all of our hearts in different ways. And that is what is happening in America. You could rephrase that. You could say it like this, what is happening in our country, what's happening in our land, what's happening in our culture. Now in two messages I quickly answered that question, and that was from Romans 1, verse 18 to 32.

Now I say quickly because we could really spend a lot of time in those verses. There's a lot that we really did not uncover. But from Romans 1 and really from some other scriptures we learned that America is just like any other Gentile nation. We are accountable to the truth of God, and specifically we are accountable to the law of God written on the hearts of men, and then we are also accountable to the testimony of God in all the creation.

But like all nations, America has suppressed, has pushed down the truth of God, and not only has America suppressed the law of God written on man's hearts and the truth of God in creation, America has rejected the very written word of God that tells of salvation in His Son Jesus. Our nation has also rejected the testimony of Christians and Christian institutions and churches. Our nation has rejected some of the greatest mission movements in church history. And the testimony of so much of our American history, that is definitely Christian. Our country has rejected, and if I can use this term, a lot of light. Now what is the result?

What is the result of America rejecting God? The reality of the principle that is taught in Galatians 6, verse 7. Paul says, "Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, they will also reap." So God has turned America over to the wrath of His abandonment. Three horrible judgments. God has judged our nation with a sexual revolution we learn. He has judged our nation with a homosexual, really an anti-heterosexual revolution. And God has judged our nation by turning our nation over to a debased, a depraved mind. Now think with me on this.

Our nation is so debased in her thinking that America celebrates this sexual revolution, which is actually a judgment of God. Our nation celebrates this homosexual revolution. Again, part of the judgment of God. America celebrates in her depraved thinking and judgments. America is celebrating in three judgments and celebrating with others who do the very same thing. I don't know why this image came to my mind, but yesterday I thought about it like this. America is celebrating in a septic tank of God's judgment and celebrating when others do the same. But you know, what do you expect?

I mean really, what do you expect from spiritually blind, spiritually dead, spiritually incapable sinners? To quote one theologian, he said, "I'm basically surprised that it hadn't happened sooner because our country is governed by sinful men." Now we have been focusing on this one question for two weeks. What is happening in America? But I have said numerous times we have a lot of other questions attached to this. We have a lot of other questions on our mind as well. You know, what is going on with all of this civil unrest? Some people call it protests. Really it's violence. It's destructive riots. What does all this talk about racism mean?

We hear so much today about racism and systemic racism and the ever-growing and popular Black Lives Matter organization. You know, there is a big debate as to how Christians in churches should relate to the Black Lives Matter organization and really even the overall subject of racism. There are many professing Christians that say that Christians in churches should link arm in arm with organizations like the Black Lives Matter organization. There are all these questions surrounding the subject of social justice. You know, should we be involved in social justice movements? How should the church relate to social justice?

Truthfully, there are many leading evangelicals in churches. They're diving head first into a social justice gospel. Well, this morning I'm not going to address all of these questions. I'm not going to address all that we're facing here with just these questions I posed. You're probably relieved. But in light of so much that's going on in our culture, I do believe we have to address some of this. Now, to be honest with you, I'm not going to be exhaustive. Brother Keith will tell you that I've had great consternation this week and even this weekend because I feel like there's so much more that we need to address.

And so what I'm addressing this morning and next week, it just might stir up some questions. And if it does, that's good. You just come and I'll tell you, I'll lead you through the scripture and we'll seek out what God's word says because we want to get our answers from God and God's word. So this morning we're still pondering this question, what is going on in our country? But we're going to look at this morning race. And then next week we're going to look at riots, these protests. And really all of this comes together this morning and next week to really just be one message about race and riots and social justice.

So really I've just been calling all of these messages, what is happening in America? This is really a part three and you can add to that title, race, riots and social justice. Now as always, I do encourage you to take notes, but you know there's a lot that we're looking at. And if you don't get distracted by taking notes, I'd rather you follow me. Occasionally some of you will ask me for my notes. I don't ever mind sharing them because I do want us to make sure we get all that we can get. But you must ask the question, how do we as Christians answer the question of race and racism? Think about that.

As Christians, how do we deal with the subject and the questions that are attached with race and racism? Now for some to deal with this subject of race biblically, you may have to go through a painful divorce. You may have to go through a painful divorce. Some here may have to divorce themselves from what they've been taught about race and racism. We have all been taught and influenced wrongly in many ways. Maybe from our parents or others in our family. Maybe even a part of our family history makes us think wrongly about race and racism.

Some of us because of education or influences from the culture, even historical figures that we admire, they may cause us to think incorrectly about race. And listen, this divorce, it may cause a strong disagreement with those who you love and respect and look up to. Think about it. If your parents and grandparents, maybe those in your family, have led you awry and you adjust your lives back to God's word, it could literally cause some in your family to disown you. I've seen that. That is just half of the battle. The battle has two sides.

Not only must we see if we are in error here, we must see that the only way to think correctly about race and racism is to address it biblically. Remember our test? We must address things like this according to God's word and we'll be tested if we'll submit to the sufficiency and the authority of Scripture. And we must see that the only way to think correctly is to think biblically. And then we must adjust ourselves to what God's word says here. You know what that means? Obedience. Just being obedient. Now this might surprise you, but the Bible does say a lot about race and what many call the different races today.

Now I'll show you how we'll start here in the message. I always want you to be able to follow along. In the first part of the message, we're going to be looking at two major truths. So number one, we must see the origin of the human race. This might be elementary for some of you, but there's more here than you, more here that you need to see. We need to see the origin of the human race. Let's go back to Genesis chapter one. Starting in verse 24, notice what the Scripture says.

Listen, God said, see this is a part of the creation account, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind." And it was so. "And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind and the cattle after their kind and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind." And what does God say? He saw that it was good.

Verse 26, "And then God said, 'Let us make man in our image according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' And God created man in his own image. And in the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them. And then God blessed them and he said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" And then what does it say?

"And God said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed.'" And it goes on to talk about how the creation was given over to man. But then notice verse 31, "And God saw that all that he had made and behold, it was very good." And this is the end of the sixth day of creation. So here in these verses, what do we see? The origin of the human race. And the origin is God. See it was God that created man, both male and female. And here we see certain details that are important. God blessed man and the woman and then he commanded them to be fruitful and to multiply. God also commanded them to subdue all of the creation.

So man was to rule over the creation. See the creation was there for man. But we see something unique about man in the creation. Man was created in the very image of God. This spoke to man's unique relationship to God. He was like God in many ways. Man could reason. He possessed an intellect and a will. And spiritually, man was like God in that he was good and sinless in his original state. So you could say that man was God-like. But you know, even after sin entered the human race, we continue to see the origin of man as being from God. And after you glance at your scripture, you see in Genesis 3, we have the fall of man.

And then things just digress. In chapter 4, we see where Cain kills Abel. And then by chapter 6, really things are really, really bad. Let's look at verse 9 on to verse 13. These are the records of the genealogy or generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man. Blameless in his time. Noah walked with God. And Noah became the father of three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God. And the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. And then what do we see in verse 13?

And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me. For the earth is filled with violence because of them." That's man. "And behold, I'm about to destroy them with the earth." What do we see? That's the judgment of God on all mankind. We know the story of Noah and the ark. But turn over one page. I say one page. It's one page in my Bible to 9, chapter 9. And I want to read verses 1 to 18. Now this is lengthy, but we need to see this. I might skip over a verse or two, so forgive me. This was at the end of this great flood event.

Verse 1, "God blessed Noah and his sons and he said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.'" Doesn't that sound familiar? And then what do we see starting in verse 2? God touches the creation. He touches the animals. And He puts the fear of man back in the animals. But notice what we see starting in verse 6. "And surely I will require your lifeblood from every beast. I will require it. And from every man, from every man's brother, I will require the life of a man." Now what is he talking about? "Whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood should be shed. For in the image of God, he made man.

And as for you, be fruitful and multiply." Populates, some translations say swarm or in the original it means swarm. Swarm the earth, populate the earth abundantly, multiply and fill it. Verse 8, "And God spoke to Noah and his sons and he said to them, 'Now behold, I myself will establish my covenant with you and with your descendants.'" Now we know that covenant. He declared that he would never destroy the earth again. And I'll skip over to verse 18. "Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan.

And these were the sons of Noah who from this whole earth was populated." So here we see the origin of the human race when? After the flood. Again, this is all from God. I said it earlier. We see the same language that we read back in chapter 1. "Then was still seen as being created in the image of God even after sin entered the human race. But what did God command Noah's sons after they came out of the ark? He commanded them to be fruitful. He commanded them to multiply. God commanded them to swarm, to populate all over the earth." And verse 18 says that all of the earth's population came from the sons of Noah. What do we see here?

The human race originated from God even after the flood. Man was created by God in the very likeness and image of God. And man remained created in the likeness and image of God even after sin entered the human race. Now in application, there are two key pieces of information I want you to remember. I want you to remember. First of all, that God created mankind, male and female. God created them. And second, that man was created in the image of God. And God took this very serious. That is why in Genesis 9.6, God said that neither animal nor man can murder a man. If he does what? They must be put to death. That's capital punishment, folks.

What a question. Where did all the races come from? What about the colors and ethnicities and nationalities and cultures and languages and peoples? Why do we have all of the different races? Is this because of some evolutionary process? I mean, did the different races come after creation? Maybe they evolved after God created? I had a man tell me one time that the dark-skinned races came from the Mark of Cain. I'll talk to you about that a little later. But the question, where did the different races come from? This is a very legitimate question. So number two, we must see biblically the origin of the human races.

The origin of the human races. Now if you would, turn over to Genesis chapter 11. Genesis chapter 11. I want to read verses 1 to 9. You might not be as familiar with these verses. Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. And it came about as they journeyed eastward. They found a plain in the land of Sinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and brick for stone." And they used tar for mortar. And they said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven. And let us make for ourselves a name.

Least we be scattered abroad over the face of the Herald Earth." And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people and they all have the same language." And this is what they began to do. And now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. "Come, let us go down and there confuse their language that they may not understand one another's speech." So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth and they stopped building the city.

Therefore its name was called Bible because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. And from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. So here we see a lot. First, we see the descendants of Noah. What were their names? We know the sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But yet they did not obey what God said in spreading all over the earth and populating the earth. They stayed together with one language and one purpose. And that was to make themselves great. That is what the tower was all about. It wasn't that man could build a tower to heaven to reach God. No.

He was building a tower in a city to make a name for himself. This was all about pride. Man had disobeyed God by staying in one place and collectively they rose up in pride. But notice what God does in response of all of this. God changed or confused their language and God Himself spread them all over the face of the earth. Verses 7 and 9 say that, "All over the earth." Now this may surprise some of you, but this teaching and understanding, it goes beyond the Old Testament scriptures as well. As a matter of fact, it goes on into the New Testament. I'm going to turn over to the book of Acts, Acts 17.

This might be a good one for some of you to turn to in Mark because it could surprise you. What we have here is Paul preaching on Mars Hill to the men of Athens. He is about his great evangelistic work. Notice what he says starting in verse 22. Paul stood in the midst of the Aragopagus and he said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I found an altar with this inscription to an unknown God.

But therefore you worship in ignorance this I proclaim to you, the God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he does not dwell in temples made with hands. Neither is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives life to all life and breath to all things." Notice what he says now, "And he," talking about God, "made from one blood or one every nation and mankind to live on all of the earth over the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation." Verse 27, "That they should seek God if perhaps they may grope and find him, though he is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and exist or have our being." Here we see Paul declaring to the men of Athens the very same reality in Genesis 11.

It was God who made from one man, that's Adam, every man. And Paul even gets into some specifics. He said that God made every nation from one people, one blood. Some translations use the one blood. God made every mankind or group or people group. God determined their times on earth. God determined even the boundaries of their nations. Paul stated all of these details right there in one verse, verse 26. And he did all of this while reminding them of the testimony of creation in verse 24, showing them that peoples and nations are responsible to God in verse 27. And that God is not far off from mankind. So what do we notice here?

The origin of the human races. The origin of the different languages and peoples and cultures and nationalities. It was from this account that God's people in the Old Testament understood the origin of the different languages and peoples and nations in their day. Biblically, it was never a question. God's people who possessed the Old Testament scriptures understood where the different languages and cultures and peoples came from. And Paul, he goes on a little further with his teaching.

He says it was not only God who scattered man around the world, but God established nations and peoples, their times on earth, and even the boundaries of their nations. Now, an application I want to pause here before we continue to show us what we must get to be biblical when we deal with race, racism, the races. We must see that all peoples are from God, from Adam to Noah, from Noah to his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and everyone after they came from God. And it was God who scattered mankind all over the earth. It was God who created the different peoples and people groups and even the nations. Yes, you can even say races.

It was God who determined the nations and even their borders in the times of their existence. Now I want to correct myself here, but I'll go ahead and tell you I'll be hypocritical because I'll renege on my correction. I want to correct myself because there are not various races spoken of in the Bible. Technically, truthfully, there is one race, the human race. Biblically, with biblical language, there are peoples and people groups and languages and nations. So mark it down and get it in your mind and thinking. There is one race, but there are multiple peoples and people groups and languages and even nations.

But remember the two keys I asked you to remember earlier. First, God made mankind and second, God made man in his own image and in his own likeness. So all of the peoples, all of the people groups, all of the peoples within these God ordained nations are made in the very image and likeness of God. I think back when I went to India some years ago, I don't know if you've ever been to a third world country, but it'll wake you up. All of those people, different shades, they're all made in the image and likeness of God. You know, when we were at different places, we heard different languages, we saw different colors.

You know, we got up near the border with Nepal and they didn't look very Indian. And what am I trying to show you? No matter where you go around the world, no matter what language or nationality or shade of skin, it's one people, a human race. And they're all made in the image and likeness of God. Now at this point, we need to ask ourselves about the subject of racism. You know, we look around in our society. It's just all about racism. It's all over social media. It's on our news outlets. And we see so much going on about racism today. And it's so loud and it's so volatile and it's so divisive. Now this is very important.

If we're going to be able to approach racism biblically, we must start with what we have learned. You see, it's all foundational. That's why I wanted you to read those scriptures. God created all men, all people, all peoples, all nations. And God created all people and peoples in His image and in His likeness. See, this is the premise from which we should work if we're going to look at racism biblically. So the question, what does the Bible say about racism? What does the Bible say about racism?

Before we get into some specific teaching on the subject, we must understand that everything the Bible says about racism is a part of the story of man's sinfulness. Yes, the Bible is the story of God's redemptive plan for man. But the Bible is also the story of man's sin against God and man's sin against other men. Now think about it. Shortly after Eve and Adam sinned against God in the garden, we have the first known sin against another man. What was it? Cain killed Abel. Brother against brother, one brother murdered another. And then from then on, we see the story of man's sin against God and man's sin against his fellow man.

Well a part of this story of man's sin against man has been the sin of what we would call in our day racism. Simply in both Old Testament times and New Testament times, men sin against other men by looking down in pride or with contempt at other men because of their race or ethnicity, because he or she was of another people or came from another people group. Of course, this sin can go from thought and heart attitude to acting out in sin. And we understand that digression. Now this sin was a big problem for the Jewish people. And we know who the Jewish people were. They were God's chosen people, descended from Abraham, the nation of Israel.

And we see this all throughout their history in both Old Testament and New Testament. In John chapter 4, when Jesus was walking, talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, what do we see? Jesus had to go to Samaria. But in that day and time, they would go all the way around Samaria because they did not like the Samaritans. His disciples were surprised. They couldn't believe it. They found him talking to a woman, but they found him talking to a woman of ill repute. Oh, but she was a Samaritan woman. Simply the Jews hated the Samaritan people because they were half Jew and half Gentile.

Honestly for a Jew in that day, the only thing worse than a Gentile was a Samaritan, a half breed. In Luke 18, Jesus told the parable to show the pride and the arrogance of the Pharisees. In the parable, the Pharisee prayed and thanked God that he was not like other people. What did he pray? He said, "God, I thank you that I'm like the thieves and the adulterers and even tax collectors." And see, this parable truly reflects the heart attitude of the Jewish people. They looked down with pride and contempt on all other peoples. In this sin of what we would call racism, it was even a problem that plagued the New Testament church, folks.

The struggles between Jews and Gentiles in the early church can clearly be seen in the book of Acts. You know, if you look at Paul's writings, Paul seemed to address Jew-Gentile issues in almost all of his letters. That's all dealing with race, folks, and religion. Even the Apostle Peter reverted back to some sinful racial ways when he withdrew from eating with the Gentiles, oh, in favor of eating with the Jews. Even Barnabas was led astray by Peter's heir. But Paul faithfully corrected that sin. When he came there to the church at Antioch, he rebuked Paul publicly because of that grievous sin. And we see that in Galatians 2.

You know, if we do more study, we could find more examples of what we would call racism in both Old and New Testament. It's in the Scriptures. I just wanted to give you a short explanation that this sin has always been around. It has always been a problem for God's people, and it's always been a problem in society. Now I want to address the sin of racism in four ways. This is what I'm calling the second part of the message. This will take us to some much-needed application there at the end. But four ways that racism is a sin. And you know, a lot of times I'll say this. You can add to this list. You know, there's only so much time here.

If you're a good Bible student, you could dig in your Scripture and say, "Brother Chris, I found some other good reasons why racism is a sin." Well, that's great. But number one, I want us to see that racism is a sin because of the glorious doctrine of justification by grace through faith. See that's what we build all of our faith on, the glorious doctrine of justification by grace through faith. Ephesians 2, verses 8, 9, and 10. We're very familiar with these verses. Paul says, "For by grace you've been saved through faith, and not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not as a result of your works that no one should boast.

For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." What is important for us to see here is that our salvation is of God and from God. It is a grace gift. Isn't that what we see in verse 9? Our salvation is from God. It is not of man. It's not from man. We can't boast. So the question must be asked. How can we look down on one people? How can we look down on one people group when we have received God's saving grace? Our life and our salvation is all because of God's grace.

And listen folks, truly embracing and swimming in the reality that you are who you are because of God's grace. It will prevent you from rising up in pride and arrogance toward another people or peoples. Also racism is a sin because of the new creation believers have in Christ. Because of the new creation that believers have in Christ. Let me read for you Galatians chapter 6 verse 14 and 15. Believe it or not, this is the letter written to the Galatian church. It had a lot of racial issues and what is he saying?

But may it never be that I boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and out of the world for neither circumcision that would be Judaism for neither circumcision anything nor circumcision but a new life in Christ. And those who will walk by this rule peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. And it is important for us to see two things here. First Paul is attacking his own pride in verse 14. He says that he should only boast in what? Christ. Why? Because he has been crucified to the world in every way.

And then second Paul declares that there is no division between man that counts for anything. He says that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. He says that what counts is the new creation in Christ that comes from a common salvation. Let me turn back to the verse that we read earlier. Galatians 3 verse 28 and 29. What does he say? There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free man. There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham's offspring. So we must see that in Christ all distinctions between man are null and void. They are erased.

Our common salvation and unity in the spirit brings us together. All races, all classes, all peoples, all experiences in life. And then also number three I want us to see that racism is a sin because of the teaching that Jesus gave about loving our neighbor. Now we are familiar with this verse or this teaching. It is found in more than one place throughout the Gospels. But in Matthew 22 we really see starting in verse 34 the religious leaders are coming to Jesus and they are trying to trap him. And in verse 36 what do we see? Teacher which is the greatest commandment in the law?

And he said to them you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and foremost commandment and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And see verse 40 is key. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. What is he saying? And the Old Testament hinges on these two commandments. Here we see that Jesus is summing up everything in the Old Testament Scriptures in two commandments. And the commandments are this. First love the Lord your God with your entire being. And then second love your neighbor as yourself.

Now question, if we love our neighbor as ourselves can we have any pride, any contempt, any sinful thoughts against another person regardless of their race or nationality? No. No. Our love for God will prevent that from remaining in our life. And then number four racism is a sin because of the fact that God made all men in his image and likeness. Honestly I came back here on purpose folks. We have learned that all men are created by God and in his image and in his likeness.

And listen folks to harbor any pride, any contempt against another man because of their race or class or nationality is a sin and it is a sin against the very image of God and likeness of God within a man. If God commanded that any person who unjustly killed another man be killed then how does God feel about murdering another man with pride and contempt just because he is of another people? What did we learn back in Matthew 5 verse 21 to 26? We learned that treating someone with contempt in the heart is murder. You see it's all murder.

So we see the depth of the sin of pride and contempt, the depth of pride and contempt toward another because of their race, because they are of another people, because they are not like us. It is a sin against that which God has created and God created them in his own image and in his own likeness. And this sin is totally antithetical to everything. God like, Christ like and truly Christian. You hear that? This sin is totally antithetical to everything God like, Christ like and truly Christian. Now I want to begin to conclude with some questions. This is how we will apply this. These are rhetorical questions.

I'm wanting you to ponder them in your mind and heart. Do you need to pray over some of these questions because maybe these questions stir up in you and show you maybe how you've been in error here. But the first question, what do you do as a Christian when any pride or contempt comes into heart against one who is of another race, another people, another nationality? Let me say that again. What do you do when you as a Christian, when pride or contempt comes within your heart against one who is of another race, another people, another nationality? Notice I said when, not if. See listen folks, this sin plagues everyone, just like any other sin.

This is one sin of many. And listen, what do we do with sin when it comes up into our heart and in our minds? We repent just like any other sin. We treat this sin like all sins when they come into our minds and hearts. You know when they're studied through the Sermon on the Mount, what do we study about adultery and what do we learn that all lust in the heart is adultery. And when those lustful thoughts come into our mind, we repent of those lustful thoughts. So when we have any pride or contempt that comes within our mind and in our hearts against another race, what do we do? We repent when it comes.

Second question, what do we do as a church when any pride or contempt comes in the church against one who is of another race or another nationality? Notice again, I said when, not if. But what do we do? We deal with it. Oh, we deal with it. And if need be, it comes to church discipline. See in the life of the church, we would not put up with adultery in the life of the church. We would not put up with homosexuality in the life of the church. We would not put up with division in the life of the church. And you know much of the discipline is one on one, but occasionally it does involve more than one folk, more than one people.

But what am I trying to show you? This sin, along with any other sin, if it comes into the life of the church, we deal with it. Remember our example? The church at Antioch. That was the first sending church. Paul's first missionary journey. It went out of Antioch and they came back and sent them out again. And there was racism that rose up there in the church and they dealt with it. And listen folks, any pride or contempt for any other people, any race is a sin and it can't be tolerated in a Christian's life or in the church.

And it is just like a whole host of other sins that can come into our lives, that can come into our church and we just can't put up with it. Why? Because it's antithetical to everything God and Christ like in His word and biblical Christianity. But the next question, what do we do when we see racism in the culture? What do we do when we see racism outside of the four walls of the church? First of all, we should not be surprised. Don't be surprised folks. Sin or sin. I mean, they're just acting according to their nature. Lost people cheat, lost people steal, lost people lie, lost people commit sexual immorality and so on and so on and so on.

Lost people are true to their nature and lost people will and can be racist. Not all, but many are. But it is a part of sinful humanity. Well what do we do? What do we do as Christians when we encounter that in the world? Listen folks, we give them the gospel. We give them the gospel, the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus. And listen, we are not to make culture better, a better place by simply trying to eradicate sin. We take the gospel wherever we go. We are not to be social activists or humanitarians. We are to be evangelists and disciple makers. You got to hear that. We are not to be social activists or humanitarians.

We are all meant to be evangelists and disciple makers because if lost people will come to faith in Christ, they will love God and then they will begin to love other people. And they won't be totally free from this sin, but they will love their neighbor. It's a natural outflow of the gospel's work in one's life. And listen folks, one of the biggest distractions for the church is to fall into the trap of trying to fix culture. You can't fix it. We can't fix it. The culture is anti-God. It's anti-Bible. It's anti-man. It is anti-everything good. We don't fix culture. We fix people. We fix people with the gospel.

It's salvation in Christ that fixes lost sinners and they're not perfect on this side. And listen, when lost people get saved, a natural outflow of their salvation is not to make the world a better place, but a natural outflow is to go into the world and naturally they will make the world a better place. Let me show you what I mean. You take someone and they come to faith in Christ. If they're a school teacher, they're going to be a better school teacher and they'll love every little boy and girl that they come in contact with.

Oh, you take someone that's a police officer and they come to faith in Christ and oh, they'll be a Christian as a police officer. You take somebody who is a businessman, they come to faith in Christ and they'll run away from crooked business dealings and they'll be a godly businessman. You take a man who is a carpenter or a plumber or an electrician, they come to faith in Christ, they'll be a Christian carpenter and a Christian plumber and a Christian electrician and they'll make their world better because the gospel will come out of their life.

You take someone that's a salesman or a doctor or a banker and you name it, when they come to faith in Christ, they will make their world a better place. Why? Because the gospel does change and impact culture, but we are not to be humanitarians. We are not on a mission to make society better. No, we are evangelists and disciple makers. And listen folks, I was better at everything in my life when I came to faith in Christ. I mean really, I've shared with many of you when I came out of high school, I went to college for a little while, I didn't really like college. I wasn't born again, had no meaning to me.

You know I came to faith in Christ and then that faithful day when God called me into the ministry, well when God called me into the ministry, I went right back to school. I became a good student then, why? Because the gospel had changed me. And every job I ever had after that, I was a better employee, why? Because the gospel had changed me. I was a better family member and think about your own life. It's the gospel that fixes people, not social activism. The next question, the last question. Can we affiliate with the Black Lives Matter organization? You know that's what's on the headlines these days. Can we affiliate with that organization?

And there's so many that are getting involved with the Black Lives Matter organization. You know folks, we need to be good at doing our research. I've read this information several times but even this morning I went to the Black Lives Matter website and on the about tab I clicked on that and then right below there, there is the what we believe. You can go there and look. And there's this long set of information about what we believe, how it was originated, who it is, their purpose. And I'll just read you some of what they stand for. Notice what they say. We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead.

We are self-reflective and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans anti-antigenistic violence. Now that's a mouthful. Goes on to say, we dismantle the patriarchal practice that requires mothers to work double shifts so that they can mother in private even as they participate in public justice work. We disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and villages. We foster a queer affirming network and we gather together.

We do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of what? Heterosexual thinking. What am I trying to show you? We can't link arms with that. It's anti-Christian. It's anti-Bible. It's anti-God. And listen, honestly, we need to be very, very, very careful with worldly organizations and how we connect with them. Most all of them are antithetical to the gospel and antithetical to the church. Does it mean that we don't care for Black lives? No. It means we do. We care for all lives. Racism. A prideful, contemptuous spirit. It is a sin because they are all made by God. They are made in the image of God, in the likeness of God.

So what do we say with all of this? We love all peoples. No matter the shade. No matter the race. No matter where they're from. No matter what they've done to us. Why? It is true to the Bible message. As I close, I want to say this. As our world is changing very fast, it might be hard to live this position. I was talking with one leading Southern Baptist evangelical a couple of weeks ago. Very prominent. And he was sharing with me how many university campuses are requiring students to sign a pledge that they affiliate with Black Lives Matter. It's going to be really tough to live this conviction. But what do we do?

We deal with race biblically. Biblically. And may the Lord help us be the Christians that he wants us to be with all of these issues and especially in the matters of race. Let's pray. And then we'll sing one song of worship.